Snowboard bindings incorporate a central disk which is rigidly attached to the snowboard, the disk capturing and engaging a base plate of the binding through a central aperture therein. The base plate is thereby securely fastened to the snowboard. Snowboard binding designs are now available which allow the angular orientation of the base plate, and thus the angular orientation of a rider's foot held at the base plate, to be adjusted relative to the surface of the snowboard without requiring the removal of the binding from the snowboard (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,236,216, 5,354,088, 5,028,068). However, many of these designs require the removal of the boot from the binding in order to make the adjustment. Some allow the rotational adjustment while the boot remains secured at the base plate of the binding.
Rotationally adjustable bindings are highly desirable since use thereof allows a given rider's preferred orientation on the board to be readily established and or changed as conditions or preferences change without repositioning the entire binding, including binding fasteners anchored in the snowboard. This is particularly advantageous for equipment rental shops where frequent adjustments may be expected from one rental customer to the next, heretofore requiring removal of the binding fasteners from the board and reinsertion thereof corresponding to the new, preferred binding orientation resulting in undo wear and tear of inserts and at the surface of the snowboard and shorter rental equipment useful life.
Snowboard bindings that can be maintained in a substantially free rotational state are also advantageous allowing the rider to orient the binding so that the rider's foot is aligned parallel to the snowboard length (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,552). This establishes the board in a skating position which allows the rider to easily manipulate through ski lift lines and the like and to assume a more comfortable position while sitting on a lift chair. However, securement against release to the free rotational state must be provided. A system that allows such release by a single movement, action or force cannot be considered to be secure because of the possibility that any single force which will release the binding to free rotation can be replicated, and thus not precluded from inadvertent application, while a binding is in use (for example by collisions or use on particularly jarring or difficult terrain).
Heretofore known rotationally adjustable bindings have not provided a combination of features felt to be necessary to maximize the benefits of such bindings. Such bindings should combine ease of use (for example, allowing adjustment without boot removal and simplicity of switching from a free rotational state to a secure state, preferably a single action using the rider's rear, or free, boot), ability to maintain the binding in the free rotational state and adjustability of the level of resistance to rotation in that state, and security from inadvertent switching to the free rotational state from the secured, or stable, state. Further improvement could thus still be utilized.